The Business Development Bank of Canada is putting $8 million from its cleantech fund into a made-in-Ottawa metal powder with the potential to reduce fuel consumption and waste in a variety of manufacturing processes.
BDC announced Tuesday it’s investing the money in Kanata’s Equispheres, which develops the powder for additive manufacturing – better known as 3D printing – applications. Equispheres’ uniform metallic powder can act as a lightweight, affordable base for a variety of products, such as airplane parts to prosthetic limbs.
A release from BDC states that Equispheres’ products enable a consistent and reliable manufacturing process that cuts down on fuel demands and reduces greenhouse gases throughout the process.
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The funding injection brings Equisphere’s total financing to more than $30 million, with cash from well-heeled Ottawa angels as well as US$5 million from defence giant and customer Lockheed Martin.
“We have tremendous demand from global leaders in the aerospace and automotive sectors for our uniquely consistent metal powder as a means to make lighter, stronger parts,” said Equispheres CEO Kevin Nicholds in a statement. “The BDC investment will help us scale up to meet this demand and provide the benefits of our product to these rapidly growing markets.”
At the start of last year, the federal government gave BDC $700 million to invest over five years to promote the development of Canada’s cleantech industry.
To hear more about Equispheres’ unique powder and the local partners it’s working with to bring its products to market, watch Nicholds’ interview with Techopia Live from last fall below.
